Reviewer:
Paulscrawl
-
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August 4, 2018
Subject:
Masterful survey of early British computing; includes Ada Lovelace's Sketch of the Analytical Engine invented by Charles Babbage
Foreword | v |
Preface | vii |
List of Contributors | xv |
Contents | xvii |
List of Plates | xix |
* PART ONE: The History and Theory of Computing Machines | |
** 1. A Brief History of Computation | 3 |
** 2. The Circuit Components of Digital Computers | 32 |
** 3. The Organization of a Typical Machine | 67 |
** 4. The Construction, Performance and Maintenance of Digital Computers | 78 |
** 5. Programming for High-speed Digital Calculating Machines | 101 |
* PART TWO: Electronic Computing Machines in Britain and America | |
** 6. The University of Manchester Computing Machine | 117 |
** 7. Calculating Machine Development at Cambridge | 130 |
** 8. Automatic Computation at the National Physical Laboratory | 135 |
** 9. The Harwell Electronic Digital Computer | 140 |
** 10. The Telecommunications Research Establishment Parallel Electronic Digital Computer | 144 |
** 11. The Imperial College Computing Engine | 161 |
** 12. The Royal Aircraft Establishment Sequence-controlled Calculator | 165 |
** 13. Calculating Machines at the Birkbeck College Computation Laboratory | 170 |
** 14. Computers in America | 173 |
* PART THREE: Applications of Electronic Computing Machines | |
** 15. Machines for the Solution of Logical Problems | 181 |
** 16. Special-purpose Automatic Computers | 199 |
** 17. Digital Computation and the Crystallographer | 203 |
** 18. The Use of High-speed Computing Machines in Meteorology | 210 |
** 19. An Application to Ballistics | 216 |
** 20. Digital Computers and the Engineer | 223 |
** 21. Machines in Government Calculations | 234 |
** 22. The Application of Digital Computers to Business and Commerce | 246 |
** 23. Electronic Machines and Economics | 272 |
** 24. Problems of Dynamical Astronomy | 282 |
** 25. Digital Computers Applied to Games | 286 |
** 26. Thought and Machine Processes | 311 |
* Appendix 1. Sketch of the Analytical Engine invented by Charles Babbage, Esq. by L.F. Menabrea, translated and with notes by Ada Lovelace | 341 |
* Appendix 2. Extracts from the Lovelace Papers | 409 |
* Glossary | 411 |
* Index | 415 |